The Films of Abbas Kiarostami

Overview

For four decades, Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami explored his homeland — and sometimes the world as well — through a deeply thoughtful, probing and humanist lens. His features don't simply peer on at people and the places they call home; the late, great director's films truly see both his characters and the spaces they inhabit. And when he passed away in 2016, he left cinema with an exquisite body of work.

This year, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image is paying tribute to the inimitable auteur, in its latest collaboration with Sydney Film Festival. Postponed from 2021 due to the pandemic, the retrospective season is called The Films of Abbas Kiarostami, and will screen seven of Kiarostami's features and a selection of his shorts.

In Melbourne, the program will play from Thursday, June 9–Monday, June 20 — and spans early works, award-winners and seminal Iranian features all-round. Among the highlights: Close-Up, which blends fiction and documentary; Ten, his snapshot of the lives of contemporary Iranian women; and Taste of Cherry, the first Iranian film to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.